The Federal Reserve has released details of nine new tactics it plans to employ to improve the US payments system across five key areas — speed, security, efficiency, international payments, and collaboration... More
China’s Baidu enters strategic partnership with Paypal to tap Chinese tourists — Reuters — “Baidu’s payment platform, Baidu Wallet, will be accepted by roughly 17 million PayPal merchants globally, the Chinese firm said in a statement on Thursday. ‘Partnering with PayPal on technology and product innovation will provide Baidu users with the ultimate cross-border consumer experience,’ said Baidu senior vice president Guang Zhu.”
UnionPay reports growth in QR code mobile payment volumes — UnionPay International — “The cross-border transaction volume of mobile QuickPass, the UnionPay mobile payment product, doubled in the first half of this year. More notably, more overseas customers are using mobile QuickPass. The transaction volume of mobile QuickPass used locally in Hong Kong and Macau more than tripled and the transaction of mobile QuickPass by Hong Kong and Macau cardholders in mainland China grew by over seven times year-on-year.”
WorldRemit adds Android Pay as secure option for migrant remittances — Reuters — “Cross-border money transfer service WorldRemit is enabling its immigrant customer base to send money home using Android Pay, making it the first international remittance firm to run on the Google payments system.”
Singapore’s OCBC Bank says it has become the first bank in South East Asia to use blockchain technology in national and international payments... More
Nine out of 10 US, European and Canadian commercial banks are exploring the use of blockchain technology for payments, according to a survey of 32 top banking professionals by Accenture... More
Ant Financial has released a new version of its Alipay app for iOS and Android, adding new Friends and Merchants tabs that provide support for peer-to-peer payments and for Koubei, the US$1bn mobile commerce joint venture between Ant Financial and Alibaba that was announced last month. More
Mobile payments platform provider Mozido has acquired Chinese cross-border payment gateway provider PayEase with the aim of introducing its mobile payments and retail marketing solutions into the Chinese market... More
A 26-page white paper that explores the role of the trusted service manager (TSM) and whether they can help or hinder the globalisation of NFC services is now available for download in the NFC World+ Knowledge Centre... More
Japan-based payments network JCB is to begin testing a contactless payments service in Tokyo this month, ahead of a commercial rollout in 2015... More
Hong Kong’s Joint Electronic Teller Services Limited — Jetco — is to use Gemalto’s LinqUs trusted service management platform for the NFC payments service it is to offer consumers via its 30 member banks... More
OTI has received Visa certification for its Wave NFC add-on, a device that plugs into the audio jack of a smartphone, tablet or PC to enable NFC payments... More
Bank of China (Hong Kong) is to introduce a microSD card based NFC payments service before the end of the year... More
SoftBank Mobile has selected Gemalto as its trusted service manager for the commercial launch of NFC services in Japan... More
Mobile network operators in the three countries have agreed technical specifications that will enable consumers to make use of NFC payments and other services in both their home country and abroad. More
“Docomo and KT plan to share the results of their commercial endeavor with global associations and standardization bodies, aiming to promote the realization of a commercial environment for globally compatible NFC services,” the Japanese and Korean carriers say. More
The first international NFC marketing service is to go live on 1 April, allowing customers of NTT Docomo and KT to collect and redeem special offers from NFC posters in both Japan and Korea — and payments and ticketing services as well as the participation of carriers in additional Asian countries are set to follow. More